Speaker A. Everyone in my family has always valued good books, art and music. My grandma, now retired, worked in a library, and grandpa is still an editor in the local newspaper. But I’m not like them at all! I’m not saying that I don’t like literature. Of course I do, but articles about our universe, stars, black holes and exoplanets are much more exciting! I would like to devote all my life to space research… which means I’ll be the first astrophysicist in our family.

Speaker B. It all started like an ordinary trip to the Moon. The shuttle was to deliver the tourists to the moon station, which looked like a large entertainment centre under a transparent sphere. However, during the flight back, something went awfully wrong. The shuttle missed the Earth and headed into open space. The space tourists, of course, got panicky but there were two characters who eventually saved the situation. I don’t remember the names of the starring actors but you’ve certainly seen them, and not just once.

Speaker C. I wasn’t actually going there; it was my friend who talked me into entering the hall ‘just to find out what the talk was about’. I expected it to be a boring scientific talk nobody could understand, but the man on the stage did not look boring at all. He was young — in his late thirties. He was wearing jeans and a jumper, like most of us. And his talk on contemporary space research and their discoveries was emotional and easy to understand. We listened till the very end and didn’t even notice how time passed.

Speaker D. Now everyone is sure that space travel, like travelling to other planets, will become possible in the near future. However, a manned mission is still a very complicated and dangerous thing. Travelling to Mars, for example, may take from six to nine months, depending on the position of the planets. Being in space for such a long time may be very harmful to the human body. The absence of gravity changes not only the bones and muscles, it also changes the work of the heart and other organs. Along with that, the astronauts receive deadly cosmic radiation.

Speaker E. We met in the college library and found out that we lived in the same block in the student campus. Since that time, Nick and I have often hung out together. He’s nice and very creative. I was really impressed when he showed me his pictures. He draws space and planets! And his pictures look like nothing I’ve ever seen. The colours are very unusual too. Nick says that he started drawing pictures of space when he was at school. The images turn up in his mind and he just transfers them to paper.